1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a water purifier, and more particularly, to a water purifier employing a water purifying material which contains water soluble mineral components.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, water purifiers of this type have been known, and one of such typical purifiers employs a natural stone such as an ore contained with mineral components as the water purifying material. This type of water purifier, however, suffers from a problem in that the stone employed as the water purifying material has few mineral components which dissolve in treated water. Therefore, a water purifier has been proposed which employs solidified minerals such as calcium hydroxide as the material for treating water. This type of water purifier also involves problems in that the mineral components in the water purifying material which continue to dissolve even when water remains stagnant until its concentration becomes too high soon become too sticky to be used. To obviate these disadvantages, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 48795/1984 discloses a water purifier which employs a solid ceramic material as the material for treating water the material being fired but not glazed and containing minerals such as calcium oxide. In this type of water purifier, however, only a small quantity of mineral components is absorbed by the water because the surface area of its water purifying material cannot be made large enough to ensure that a sufficient amount of the mineral components are dissolved. Further, each of these known water purifiers additionally suffers from the problem that chlorine and other impurities which impair the taste and odor of water cannot be sufficiently removed.